


Against All Odds.

by jasminecheyanne



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Airbending & Airbenders, Bending (Avatar), Canon-Typical Violence, Earthbending & Earthbenders, F/M, Firebending & Firebenders, Near Death Experiences, Waterbending & Waterbenders
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-27
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-01-23 22:56:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12518480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jasminecheyanne/pseuds/jasminecheyanne
Summary: Rin Yaling was not your average Fire Nation child.When she started showing signs of being a fire bender, she was terrified. Despite all of the lessons she was taught, where a bender could not be harmed by their own abilities, she was still afraid to wield them.The moment she began showing signs of being the legendary Avatar, the people in her village refused to believe that someone so weak would be the one to save the world. Their lack of faith did not help her self confidence, resulting in her locking herself away in her chambers with Miho, her phoenix, determined never to see the villagers disappointed faces again.In her time of weakness, the past Avatar's paid her a visit, each telling her stories of their own hardships in their time, but it was Korra who convinced her to train and rejoin the world, by showing her the future.Someone wicked was coming in one year's time, and with help from the American team known as the Avengers, Rin could save the world.





	1. If You Can't Stand the Heat, Get Out of the Garden.

Her long brown hair billowed out behind her as she stepped out of the taxi in front of the tall building known as the Avengers Tower, one large duffel bag clutched in one hand, and an animal's cage in the other. Rin Yaling watched with dark eyes as the obnoxious yellow vehicle disappeared around the corner, before crouching down in front of Miho's cage.

" _I'm so sorry you had to go through that,"_  She sighed as she unlocked the cage door, reaching her arm inside of it for her best friend to climb upon it.  _"American's have no manners, do they, Miho?"_  She joked weakly, trying to swallow down her nerves.

The phoenix cawed softly in agreement, digging his talons into his owner's skin of her forearm to steady himself as she stood. As people bustled around the two friends, only one out of three men and women gawked at the bright red, orange and yellow feathered bird with the clearest, bluest eyes. Rin and Miho watched in amusement as their jaws dropped when he stretched out his large wings luxuriously after being cramped inside the small metal prison for twelve long hours.  _Of course, most of the world thought phoenix's to simply be mythology. Greek, no less! Curious..._

At the sound of many weapons clicking into readiness, Miho squawked in fear and leaped to Rin's shoulder, hiding his face in the straight strands of her deep brown hair. Six men donning pristine black suits edged closer with their gun's trained on her as she reached her hand up to scratch Miho's neck soothingly. Whether it was more soothing for him or for her, was unknown.

"Ma'am, show us your hands!" One man ordered loudly in English, spittle flying from his mouth oh-so attractively. Fortunately, the Yaling family was well equipped with the language of the American's.  _But wouldn't it be so much fun to speak Mandarin to utterly take them by surprise? Alas, I must be a responsible adult._

 _Well,_ moderately  _responsible._

"Is  _this_ how you treat  _all_ your guests? Giving them orders with guns in their faces? Why, I  _never_!" Rin would not lie, the bewilderment on their faces was  _priceless_ , even with her anxiety dancing around inside her like exploding butterflies.

The man who had shouted at her slowly lowered his gun and exchanged looks with the five men standing with him, before returning his gaze to hers, "If you would give us your name, ma'am, we would be happy to check the Avengers' schedule."

Smiling brightly at the six men, she introduced herself, despite knowing that her name wouldn't be on said list. She hoped that they would let her in anyway, on her good looks alone.  _Yeah, right,_  Rin snorted softly to herself,  _more like my sparkling personality._

Rin heaved a sigh as she watched the men exchange yet another look, glancing up at her from over their clipboard. "Listen, fella's. I know my name isn't on that list, but I  _have_ to get in there. I  _have_ to talk to the Avengers! Someone evil is going to wreak havoc on America in two months time! Thousands, perhaps more, will die if I don't warn them now!"

The men were silent for a moment, before they erupted into snorts, rolling their eyes and shaking their heads, "Like we haven't heard  _that_ before. Scram, lady, and take your weird ass bird with you."

Miho took his face from under Rin's hair, blue eyes narrowing into slits as he spreads his wings and chirps loudly at the insult. Before he could take flight, Rin grabs his foot and sighs, slinging her duffel bag over her free shoulder. "How did I know it would come to this?"

Avatar Korra's voice echoes in her head, _If someone tries to stop you from doing what is right, because their ego won't let them see the truth, it is your duty to make yourself be heard._

She allows herself a smirk as she brings her legs closer together and lets go of Miho's foot, "Since you refuse to do the gentlemanly thing and invite me inside, I guess I'm gonna have to let myself in."

The ground beneath her feet began to rapidly heat up and turn black, smoke seeping out from under the soles of her feet, and with one jump, she was off into the air with bright orange flames shooting from her feet. Miho cawed happily as he leaped from her shoulder, flying by her side for the first time in ages.

" _Holy shit!"_  The men screamed in unison and Rin just managed to dodge bullets as they whizzed past her.  _"What the hell is she, the Human Torch's distant cousin, or something?!"_

Detecting the scent of something burning, Rin lowered her gaze to find a small garden just outside of the building on fire, the flames catching at a rapid pace. "I'm so sorry!" She called down at the scrambling men, swearing to herself that as soon as she could, she would replace them. Turning her face skyward, her eyes zeroed in on an open window about 50 stories up high. A smile spread across her face and she strengthened the fire, and flew smoothly through the window.

The flames at her feet guttered out the moment she tucked and rolled against the plush beige carpet of the room she landed in.  _"And she sticks the landing!"_  Rin quietly cheers as Miho flies into the window with a delighted  _hoot!_ , landing on a plush armchair a few feet from her.

"Uh..."

At the sound of an unfamiliar voice, Rin's head shoots up, her eyes quickly landing on a tall, dark skinned man in nothing but a small white towel, droplets of water sliding over the rivulets of his muscles. Gripping his only means of coverage, he backs up until his back is pressed against the door behind him, "Who in the  _holy hell_  are you, how did you get up here, and  _why_ is that scary-ass bird ripping through my nice velour chair?!"

Rin couldn't find it within herself to speak right away. She was too distracted by the man's arms, and pectoral muscles and his abs, and how delicious his deep skin looked over said muscles, sparkling wet, no less.  _Am I breathing? I don't think I'm breathing. And this is how I die. On my headstone will be "Rin Yaling - death by attractive male", and in fine print, "He didn't even do anything, he just stood there looking fine as hell, and she died on the spot."_

Through the confusion and the apparent alarm, the man in the towel started to smirk at the flush in her cheeks at his obvious state of undress.

_Okay, Rin, just remember: Death and destruction is coming. Death and destruction._

Scrambling to her feet, she whistled for Miho to rest on her shoulder. Once he had settled, she cleared her throat and tilted her chin up, feigning confidence.

"My name is Rin; daughter of Xia and Arun Yaling. And I'm here to warn you and your fellow Avengers of something wicked that is fast-approaching your free country, America. I am also here to help you."

Sam likes to think that he's a very understanding dude, and judgement-free...but when some random lady and a brightly coloured bird of death - and cuteness, he'll admit it to no one but himself - charges through his open window when he's getting out of the shower...well, let's just say he's allowing himself to be slightly judgey for once. Only  _slightly._

Before she could say anything to dissuade his obvious disbelief, there was a loud crash as four people slammed through the bedroom door, leaving a nice doorknob-sized dent in the wall. Miho and the gorgeous-towel-man squawked in sync at the sudden noise, the phoenix speeding out of the window, and the man clutching a hand over his heart.

Rin had ducked into a defensive crouch, her fists held up and beginning to smoke, as the four newcomers trained various weapons on her: A knife, a handgun, a small disc crackling with electricity, and...a red, white and blue shield. The sight of the familiar Frisbee-like weapon instantly calmed her pounding heart, and she found herself relaxing her fighting stance, sighing in relief.  _Finally! Something is_ finally  _going right today!_

"Hel-" Rin began, but was quickly cut off by a very familiar suited-man.

"That's her! That's the girl who  _flew up_  50 stories like it was nothing!" He shouted, spit flying, eyes bulging, face red and sweating, "She burned Mr. Stark's petunia's with  _fire_ that came out of her  _feet!_ Who  _does_ that?!"

The woman with bright red hair - Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff - rolled her eyes, "Sorry, he's new. It's  _so hard_  to find good help these days." Despite her jovial tone of voice, she never dropped her guard, nor her sparky disc of pain and suffering.

 Korra's voice filtered through her head a second time,  _Even if you're scared, it's important never to show it. If there's anything I've learned as the Avatar, it's that it's okay to be afraid. What matters is what you do with that fear. You can either let it control you, or you can control it._

Breathing in deep, Rin willed her fear into submission, and locked it away in her heart as best as she could.

Captain America - Steve Rogers - stepped forward, lowering his shield to his side, "Who are you? How did you get up here?" He asked, eyebrows furrowed and voice stern. The man beside him -  _is that a metal arm?_  - stepped slightly in front of the Captain as he spoke, "What the hell do you want?"

Rin chuckled nervously under their scrutinising gazes and scratched the back of her neck, "Like the man said, I flew up here. And yes, my feet were producing fire. I'm sorry about your flowers...I'll, uh, replace them. I promise!"

Another calming breath in and out, Rin bit her lip and shrugged her shoulders, "They wouldn't let me in the front, so I took it upon myself to get in, as it is imperative I talk to the Avengers, to you guys, before it's too late."

Natasha narrows her eyes suspiciously, her fingers flexing around her Window Bites, demanding to know, "And you are...?"

"Oh, right! Well..." Rin exclaims, recalling she had only introduced herself to the mostly-naked-handsome-man, and not even entirely, at that! 

"My name is Rin Yaling. And I'm the...well, I'm  _the Avatar._ "


	2. The God of Death.

Rin Yaling's introduction left the room in a mixture of confusion and disbelief. 

The legend of the Avatar isn't a well-known one, and only a handful outside of Asia believed it to be more than mythology, or a story for parents to tell their children at night. Much like the true state of Wakanda, the Avatar has been hidden from the outside world. Not for lack of empathy for those around them, but for survival. If the outside world knew of the Avatar and what such a being could do, all of their secrets, their very culture would be exploited by greedy, evil people who would use their power for their own selfish gain.

But, as the new Avatar stood before the Avengers, she knew deep in her bones that change was necessary. Not only for her people's survival, but for the world's.

Natasha Romanoff quirks an eyebrow and folds her arms across her chest. "If the Avatar legend isn't just that, why haven't they helped with the rest of the world's issues?" 

Rin meets her challenging gaze evenly. "What makes you think we haven't?"

Sam, still naked as the day he was born save the towel around his hips, leaned heavily against the wall as stories his mother told him of the fabled Avatar rose to the forefront of his memory. Along with many other children, he had played make-belief. He was the Avatar, born in the Southern Air Temple. He would fly around in his backyard on an air-glider (truly, a broom with wings made out of construction paper and tape), and he would pretend to push his friends away with one mighty breath of air. He stared in awe at the woman whom was supposedly the Avatar he had grown up pretending to be, before remembering her daunting words mere moments ago.

"Hold on a minute." Sam says while shaking his head to clear it, pushing up off of the wall to regain his bearings. "Am I the only one who heard the words  _"before it's too late"_? Too late for  _what_ , exactly?"

Rin flushes with nerves as all eyes fell to her, and, well. . .she  _did_ have the answers, after all. More or less. There was just  _one thing_ distracting her. She turns to Sam. "Maybe you should put on some clothes before I open that can of worms."

Sam, being Sam, couldn't help but smirk and send a cheeky wink her way. "You sure 'bout that? You haven't even seen my thighs yet! They rival even that of thighs of betrayal, over there." He nods toward the man standing beside Captain Rogers, the one with the metal arm.

Steve, being Steve, puts the flirtatious comments to a stop with a roll of his eyes (although there was a glimmer of exasperated amusement in there somewhere). "Meet us in the conference room in five minutes."

* *

Five minutes later, Sam walks into the conference room fully clothed, to find a few of the Avengers present. Save Thor in general, because. . .space, or something. And Tony because, well, it's Tony. Fashionably late is his middle name, or did you know that already?

Natasha and Clint had their heads bowed as they spoke in hushed whispers, Steve and Bucky were standing side-by-side in companionable silence, while Bruce sat at the long table quietly reading a book.  _Oh yeah,_ Sam thinks to himself,  _wasn't there a guard about to burst a blood-vessel here at some point?. . .Oh, well._

Looking toward the large windows taking up an entire wall of the room, he found Rin standing with her arm stretched out the open window. If Sam listened close enough, he could just make out her whistling a short, sweet tune. As the song comes to an end, the big cute red bird of death lands on the edge of her wrist, cawing softly as he's brought into the room. She smiles down at her pet (friend?) and runs her fingers softly over his feathers.

He hadn't realised he had been walking toward her until he catches Rin speaking to the phoenix, in what was possibly Chinese.  _"Did the big scary Avengers frighten my beautiful fire? It's alright, Miho, I know you can take them with both feet tied behind your back."_

As if feeling his eyes on her, she looks up at him just as he reaches her side, still grinning from ear-to-ear. "You can pet him if you want. His name is Miho."

Sam, having been momentarily stunned into silence by her smile, quickly clears his throat to regain his composure. "Well," He says, a slightly-forced smile upon his face that quickly becomes natural the more they speak. "My code-name  _is_ Falcon, so maybe we can bond over bird misconceptions." And as he reaches out a hand to pet the beautiful bird, Miho leaps from Rin's hand and onto Sam's shoulder.

Rin can't keep the dumbfounded expression off of her face, her arm still held out at an awkward angle from where she had been holding Miho. "He's never done that with a stranger before," She breathes out, marvelling at the man and the bird cawing and chirping back and forth with each other as if they were having a deep conversation. "He lets them pet him at most, but. . .he never goes to them himself."

As they speak, more members of the Avengers arrive: James Rhodes, Wanda Maximoff, Vision and the youngest member to date, Peter Parker.

The former Air Force kinda-but-not-really pilot just grins as he scratches Miho gently on the neck. "Us birds gotta stick together, y'know? We understand each other. Ain't that right, little man?" Rin laughs in disbelief as her animal soulmate closes his bright blue eyes, relishing in the attention he was getting.

Before Rin can even begin to fathom what all this means, the double doors burst open. In comes a man with artistic facial hair and dark circles under his eyes like he hasn't slept well for a decade, at least.

His dark brown eyes immediately zero in on Rin and she unconsciously stands up straighter at the distrust exuding from his entire body. "So, you're the one who killed my peonies I had put in yesterday." Although his tone was light and sarcastic, Rin could tell that it would take a hell of a lot for him to trust her, even a little bit.

At his dramatic arrival, all previous conversation had screeched to a halt, Natasha and Clint were now sitting at the table across from Steve and Bucky, Bruce in the same position, but with his book closed, the others in similar positions.

Natasha leans back in her chair casually as she corrects Tony. "Petunia's."

Stark gasps, and there was such a dramatic air about him, that Rin just knew he was mentally putting his hand to his chest in absolute outrage. "Not my petunia's, too!"

Rin, although confused, steps forward and bows deeply. "I'm so sorry about your flowers, Mr. Stark. I will pay for any damage I've caused in coming here, I swear it!"

With a resounding clack, Tony sets the items in his arms down onto the table, and waves his hand distractedly. "Doesn't matter, I've already had the flowers replaced. Daisies, this time. They go much better with the decor. At least, that's what Pepper tells me." He sits at the head of the table and laces his fingers together behind his head. "Plus, you've given me an excuse to upgrade. . .everything. Fire-resistance outdoors? Give me a day and I'll have a prototype, easy peasy, lemon squeezy, yawn, blah, blah."

He suddenly sits forward and lowers his face to what he placed on the table. A glass of water, a crumbling cement brick, and an unlit candle. "You, on the other hand, are  _exponentially_ more interesting. Light this candle for me."

I k _new this would come sooner or later. I just had hoped it would've been later,_ Rin sighs to herself. Collecting herself for what was to come, she steps up to the table and focuses on the Pumpkin Spice scented candle. With a flick of her index finger, a small flames shoots onto the wick, and slowly starts to melt the wax.

"Put it out?" Tony says quietly, the air of the room heavy with suspense. Closing her eyes, she waves her hand, as if to backhand someone, and the flame gutters out. Tony's hair moves gently as a gust of cool wind breezes past him, and he knows he's beaming up a storm.

Before he can surely ask for her to bend the brick or the water to her will, Captain Rogers speaks up. "That's enough, Tony. If Ms. Yaling wants to show us the rest of her abilities, it can wait until after she tells us what she meant about it being too late." With that, everyone takes their seat (Tony is grumbling "but the science, Steve, the  _science!"_ ), while Rin stands at the opposite end of the table to Tony.

She takes a deep breath, feeling everyone's eyes burning holes into her. "He's known as. . . _the God of Death._ "


End file.
